


Sometimes There's a Happy Ending

by inkandwords



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher, Ereri Week, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other, atsu fics, oblivious!eren is oblivious, pining!levi is my weakness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-03
Updated: 2015-06-03
Packaged: 2018-04-02 17:58:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4069300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkandwords/pseuds/inkandwords
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi communicates through his love of books while he works up the nerve to ask Eren for his number.</p>
<p>Written for <b>Day 1: Pining</b> and <b>Day 3: Caught in the Act</b> of <a href="http://ereri-week.tumblr.com/prompts">EreRi Week</a> on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sometimes There's a Happy Ending

**Author's Note:**

> Pining!Levi is my weakness. As are bookstore/library AUs. Oblivious!Eren is oblivious. haha 
> 
> -H

“Are you going to ask for his number eventually? If you keep glaring at him, you might bore holes into the kid.”

Levi glances at Hanji only long enough for her to see the subtle roll of his eyes before he goes back to his book. 

“I wonder what kind of books he likes to read? Do you think he’s interested in mythical lore or maybe those mystery stories you like but pretend not to?” Hanji pauses. “Maybe he doesn’t read. I should ask him.”

“Of course he reads.”

Hanji raises a brow and Levi sighs when he catches the way her eyes light up at his errant comment. “How would you know?” 

“I just do.” Levi attempts to focus on his book. He knows where this is going. Hanji’s observational skills are generally useful when they aren’t used to annoy him, but sometimes he wishes she wouldn’t pay so much attention to things that don’t concern her. “Mind your own damn business and maybe you’ll get more action than those science experiments you’re always getting worked up over.”

“Research!” Hanji insists. “Besides, we’re talking about you, not me. You’re the one that likes h--”

“Shut up.” Levi’s tone is abrupt enough to quiet Hanji mid-sentence just in time.

“Hi, sorry for the wait. Can I get you anything?”

The voice beside him is familiar enough for Levi to cast a furtive glance toward its owner. Most of the bookshop workers know to leave him alone when he’s reading, or trying to, anyway, while Hanji mercilessly yaps in his ear; some of them even know him well enough to catch the right time to interrupt and ask him what he wants. 

Now is not one of those times. 

“A muzzle would be nice,” Levi mutters without looking up, idly flipping a page of the book propped open in his hand. He doesn’t mean to be rude, not really. But being around Hanji and her antics has him somewhat paranoid that she’ll blurt something out without even realizing she’d done anything wrong.

“Don’t mind him,” Hanji says, the poorly hidden excitement in her voice making Levi slink just a little lower in his chair. “He’s always grumpy. Two coffees please; cream and two sugars for me, black for him.” When she pauses, Levi’s eyes flit up in time to see the smile spread wide across her face before she asks, “Sorry, kiddo. What was your name again?”

“Right,” the boy says as he jots the order down. He looks confused for a second; it isn’t the first time Hanji has asked for his name. The change is fleeting, however, and his geniality returns when he continues, “Uh, my name’s Eren. Are you okay, Professor?”

“Yes, why?” Hanji answers, her attention momentarily distracted by something on her computer screen. 

Eren idly scratches his temple with the eraser-tip of the pencil he’s holding. “Never mind. If you need something else, just let me know.”

Levi scoffs in response to hide the small twitch of a grin. Hanji is smart, brilliantly so, but sometimes her social graces need some work. Not that he can say much for his own. “You know his name,” he murmurs when Eren is out of earshot. “Stop being a shitty friend. You’re being obvious.”

“I know that I know his name. I wanted to make sure  _you_  remember his name when you ask for his number.”

“Drop it.”

“But if you would just--”

“Ignoring you now.”

“Fine,” she grumbles, turning back to her laptop screen with an air of mischief that makes Levi groan internally. “You’ll listen to me one of these days.”

“Don’t hold your breath.”

They stay for a while, Hanji clacking away on her laptop while Levi finishes the remainder of his book. When they get up to leave, Levi approaches the counter after explicitly telling Hanji to stay by the door. Eren wipes his hands on his apron, water droplets dotting his wrists before those, too, are dried. He greets Levi with a grin. "Finished your book, Professor Ackerman?”

Levi fights a grimace at how formal it sounds and wonders if it might be too forward if he asked Eren to call him by name. 

_He’d probably think it was odd._

While there are many things about him that may seem strange to a twenty-something undergrad he used to teach, there are others things that can work to his advantage. “I did. You’ll like this one; slow beginning, but it picks up a few chapters in,” he says and hands Eren the book he had been previously reading. His fingers brushed against Eren’s and, for a second, the beat in his chest skips and loses its rhythm before Eren’s smile helps to right it again. 

“Are you okay?”

Levi curtly nods. The gesture doesn’t betray the way he masks the tightening in his chest, the discomfort of wanting to linger but not wanting to cross an unspoken boundary. Eren would never see him that way anyway. “Did you like the other book?” he asks instead.

“Oh! Thanks for reminding me!” Eren disappears through the ‘Employees Only’ door and returns a minute later holding a tattered paperback in his hand. “I never would have picked this out if you hadn’t recommended it, but it was a pretty easy read. I liked the scenes with the military training. It’s weird that you knew that before I read it.”

“Good,” Levi says without explanation.  _Hanji isn’t the only one who’s observant_ , he thinks, retrieving the book before he points to the one Eren had set down on the counter. “This one might take you longer than a week to read.”

Eren laughs and Levi finds the more he hears it, the more he likes the sound. “I bet I’ll have it done before you come in next.”

This time, Levi doesn’t fight the smile “See you next week, Jaeger.”

* * *

 

Levi’s visits to the bookstore remain steady, constant. He comes around the same time every week, trading books and conversation with the bright-eyed boy working the floor. Sometimes Hanji tries to persuade him to make his visits more frequent, but he prefers the subtle admiration to Hanji’s more obvious approach. 

“You’re going to run out of books before you get his phone number,” she muses one afternoon, her gaze flickering over to where Eren is helping a petite brunette who seems to be interested in more than just the daily specials. “He sure gets a lot of attention, doesn’t he?”

Levi briefly glances over his shoulder before he takes a sip of his tea. “I’ll probably run out of patience dealing with your shit before I run out of books,” he mutters, though his eyes follow her line of sight before forcibly redirecting his attention back to his book. “Besides, why the hell would I care how much attention he gets?”

Hanji snorts. “You’re so full of it.”

Ignoring the quip, Levi waits for her to lose interest and go back to grading her papers before he allows himself to look toward the counter again. Eren is sitting on one of the stools, reading glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. The book Levi had finished the week before is wedged between his fingers and as he turns the page, he laughs, the sound causing Levi’s lips to twitch in an almost smile. His gaze lingers for a moment longer and when Eren’s eyes lift to scan the room, Levi hastily resumes his own book, trying to pretend that the sudden awareness of his own heartbeat is a result of too much caffeine.

Sometimes he thinks Hanji’s suggestion might be worth a try, but eventually he talks himself out of it. 

_I’m too old for him anyway._

* * *

 

Eren has proven to be as voracious a reader as Levi and it not only intrigues him, but provides a challenge as well. Each week he’s determined to find something different, something that would make Eren think, and searching for the right book has become a hobby of sorts as much as it is a catalyst for conversations that have now become a part of his weekly routine. 

“Are you okay?” Eren asks during one of their afternoon conversations. His brows are pinched with worry, concern worn like a heart on his sleeve and for a second, Levi wonders how someone is that honest, that earnest, that open with his feelings, no matter how platonic. 

“Yeah,” Levi replies with a raise of a brow. “Why?”

Eren opens his mouth to speak, but seems to change his mind and shakes his head instead. “It’s stupid,” he says, “Never mind.”

With a sigh, Levi says, “If you’re going to bring up stupid shit, the least you can do is spit it out. My mind reading skills are rusty these days.”

“I just, I don’t know, wondered why the last few books have been sadder than usual. It’s not your typical genre. This one,” Eren says, lifting the book he was about to give back to Levi, “had a lot of good stuff in it, but every time I thought he was finally going to get to the girl, something else happens and the reincarnation cycle starts again.”

“Sometimes life works that way.”

“Not always.”

“Enlighten me.”

“Sometimes,” Eren says with a grin as he trades paperbacks and meets Levi’s skeptical gaze, “there’s a happy ending.”

* * *

 

It’s raining the next time Levi makes it into the bookstore. He had considered skipping this week if only to avoid the thunderstorm the weather reports predicted, but he’s grown used to the conversations with Eren and he figures, it may give him a chance to linger longer than he usually does.

“Hey Mr. Ackerman,” Eren says before he sets Levi’s coffee on the table. “I figured you might want to switch to coffee since it looks like we’ll be stuck here a while.” He gestures toward the heavy rainfall and flinches when thunder rumbles in the distance. “Unless you want to keep at it with the tea instead?”

Levi manages to look up from his book long enough to raise a brow. “The coffee’s fine,” he says, taking a sip as he glimpses the flash of lightning outside. “Change is g--”

Lights flicker overhead, interrupting Levi’s train of thought mid-sentence. Just as he’s about to speak again, he spots another flash of lightning and the lights immediately shut off, voices around them crying out in alarm. 

“Aw, crap,” Eren groans.

As Levi’s eyes adjust to the newfound darkness, he sees well enough to make out outlines of the other patrons. When he feels a warm breath next to him, he reels back a fraction. “What the hell?”

“Sorry! I didn’t realize I was that close,” Eren mumbles. Levi hears him feeling around the edge of the table, his shoes scuffing against the floor. “I think I saw some flashlights in the supply closet. I should probably go and get them.”

Levi’s reflexes are quick, his hand shooting out to grab the chair when it squeaks across the floor and nearly topples over behind him. “I’m coming with you.”

Eren halts mid-step and causes Levi to abruptly slam right into him. “You really don’t have to. Petra’ll probably tell me to go get them anyway.”

“I want to. Stop yapping and lead the way.”

“Hold on a sec,” Eren says, biting back an incredulous laugh. “Don’t tell me you’re scared of the dark?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I just want to make sure you don’t trip over something. Now, stop being an idiot. Where’s the damn supply closet?”

“Back there,” Eren replies, even though as dark as it is, Levi has no idea which direction Eren is pointing to.

Levi hears him attempt to stifle his laughter again and he’s about to say something when he feels a hand grasp his. “What the hell are you doing?”

“So I don’t lose you in the dark,” comes the easy reply as Eren navigates toward the back of the bookstore with Levi in tow.

Once inside the closet, Eren taps on something against the wall to the right and a dim glow bathes the small room enough for Levi to see what its contents are. “I thought the power wasn’t working?”

“It’s not,” Eren says, releasing Levi’s hand, much to the man’s unspoken chagrin. “But this is battery powered. I thought it’d be pretty cool to have them in here in case the storms blow the fuses out.”

“Good thinking, kid.” Levi takes a look around the room again, sweeping carefully over each shelf in search of the flashlights. He spots them after a minute as Eren rummages through a large box in the corner. They’re on the top shelf of one of the storage spaces and because he neither wants to ask for help or be made to look like he can’t do something as simple as retrieve an item from a high-reaching shelf, he tries to make a grab for the flashlights himself with miserable results.

“Here, let me get those.” Eren is next to him and grabbing the flashlights before Levi can protest. “By the way, I’m not a kid anymore, you know.”

“I know that,” Levi mutters. 

“Then why do you still treat me like one?”

“I don’t.”

“You do,” Eren insists, shaking his head and staring at the dust-covered floor. “But the thing I don’t get is why.”

“It’s hard to get out of habit, I guess.” Levi levels his gaze. He has the feeling the conversation is about to take an awkward turn and he would really rather not explain why he’s been hellbent on keeping his distance just enough. “Student,” he says, gesturing to Eren before he points to himself. “Teacher.”

“That’s why I don’t get it.” Eren scratches the side of his head. “I catch you looking at me sometimes and I always think, this time, maybe this time he’s starting to come around.”

“Come around? What the hell are you babbling about?”

“You’re not the only one who’s observant, you know,” Eren says matter-of-factly before he continues. “Then the books. I thought you were trying to hint at something, but now I’m not so sure. I was going to saying something; I think about saying something every time I see you, but things come up and I lose my nerve. Then the next time you come by, it’s like I’m starting all over again. Sound familiar?”

Levi’s stomach clenches, his breath caught in the back of his throat when he realizes where Eren’s going with his spontaneous monologue. “Goddammit.”

Eren’s head-scratching now turns into a full frustrated sweep of his hair. “I didn’t want to be too obvious about it, but I thought you were smart enough that you’d figure it out eventually. At least you talk to me now; that’s more than any progress I made while I was pining after you in class. Armin still hasn’t let me live it down.”

Levi turns to Eren and deadpans to hide his surprise. “Pining?”

“You didn’t know,” Eren says, his expression faltering. “I’ve been into you since I took your class two semesters ago, but I thought teachers weren’t allowed to date students, so I never tried talking to you. Then you came up to me when I started working here after I graduated and I thought, hey, maybe now I have a shot.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“I know, I know,” Eren says with a sheepish grin as he clamps a hand at his nape in visible embarrassment. “It’s dumb, right? Student crush on a professor. Can we just forget I said anyth--”

“Eren.”

“Huh?”

Levi tugs Eren down to eye level by his collar, his brows creasing. He doesn’t think, doesn’t try to rationalize; for the first time in a long time, he takes a leap of faith and tilts his face just enough to close the distance between them. He feels Eren tense for a brief moment before the flashlights clatter on the dust-covered floor. Eren returns the kiss, tentative and gentle and more than likely just as bewildered as Levi is with the new turn of events.

The power suddenly returns and causes them both to pull away, slightly breathless and squinting from the flood of light that fills the cramped space. 

Eren takes a step back, confused. “Did you just--”

Levi meets his gaze and shrugs. “Someone told me once that sometimes there’s a happy ending.” 

“So you--”

“Eren, are you in there?” a voice calls from the other side of the door. Petra, the bookstore’s manager, knocks on the door and wriggles the handle. It turns and a second later, the door eases open before she pokes her head inside. “There you are-- oh! Fancy seeing you here, Professor Ackerman!”

“Sorry, I forgot to tell you,” Eren explains with a sheepish grin. “Tried to find the flashlights when the power went out.”

“The store’s closing up early, just in case it happens again. Jean and Auruo’s already shutting everything down.” Her eyes flicker between them and Levi swears he can see the smile she’s obviously trying to hide. “I just wanted to let everyone know so no one gets stuck inside when I lock up.” She clears her throat so conspicuously that Levi has to fight to keep from palming his face. “I better go help them. See you both out there.”

It’s a half hour before the last of them finally leaves. Levi had stayed behind, trying to convince himself that it’s because he wanted to help and not because he isn’t ready to say goodbye just yet. Petra and the others wave as they take off, leaving Eren and Levi to fill the silence before they go their separate ways.

“So, I’m going this way,” Eren says, motioning behind him with a tilt of his head.

Levi thumbs over his shoulder. “I’m that way.”

“Mr. Ackerman?”

“Call me Levi. I’m sure you won’t have much trouble after,” he says and pauses. His eyes flicker toward the bookstore, clearing his throat when the spontaneous kiss in the supply closet pops into his head, “ _that_.”

Eren flushes to the tips of his ears. “Right. Levi. Got it. I need to get used to calling you that, I guess. Oh! I almost forgot to give you this.” He pulls out a newer-looking paperback and hands it over. “I meant to do it earlier, but the power went out. I thought I’d recommend a favorite of mine this time.” He grins. “Same time next week?”

“Maybe sooner.” Levi shrugs and deadpans. “Maybe tomorrow.”

“Cool,” Eren says and before Levi has the chance to react, he leans in and steals another kiss. It’s more gumption than Levi expects and Eren laughs, his expression impish when he pulls away. “See you tomorrow... Levi.”

It’s Levi’s turn to flush, wordlessly staring as Eren opens up his umbrella and waves before he walks down the street and disappears around the corner. He opens the book out of curiosity, surprised to find Eren’s number jotted down on the first page. 

_Maybe happy endings do exist after all_ , he thinks with quiet chuckle, and he, too, pulls out his umbrella with a new kind of optimism and makes his way back home with the book tucked safely away.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a little out of practice with EreRi/RiRen, so hopefully I didn't botch this up too much. lol Thanks for reading! Find me on Tumblr @ [limitlessmonster](http://limitlessmonster.tumblr.com). :D
> 
> -H


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